Bremerton Rink Trying to Put People on Ice

Bremerton's ice rink is working to get more people into the facility with free skating on Wednesdays.

The Bremerton Ice Skating Center hosts a free skating session from noon until 5 p.m. Wednesdays through the end of May.
(LARRY STEAGALL | KITSAP SUN)

BREMERTON - Sam Cribbs of Poulsbo was more interested in his Skittles than his skates on Wednesday.

It is, perhaps, not surprising that a 3-year-old would prefer candy over inching his way along the ice under the watchful gaze of his mother, Jayne Cribbs, at the Bremerton Ice Skating Center.

Sam’s three older brothers, however, made circles around the rink Wednesday.

The arena is offering free skating between noon and 5 p.m. every Wednesday through the end of May. It is one of the ways the center is trying to get more people involved in the rink.

Joining the Cribbs brothers and their mother was 14-year-old Lucky Welch, a competitor in ice dancing and women’s’ skating, and Dennis Woody, 63, who started skating eight years ago and regularly joins a group of seniors who do laps and other maneuvers around the rink on Mondays and Wednesdays.

“That’s the one thing about this facility is that you have a great cross-section of people that comes here,” said Kelly Johnson, who moved himself, his wife and his three children from Denver three weeks ago to become the rink’s general manager. “At any other rink I’ve been at that’s not the case.”

The center was opened in 2003 and was soon entangled in financial disputes that clouded whatever good will there had been about the rink.

The arena hosts adult and youth hockey leagues as well as a junior division hockey team. But Johnson said he’s found that only about half the people he meets in the community are even aware of the rink, in part because it’s tucked away in East Bremerton away from major streets.

The ice skating center has taken up some efforts to overcome its relative obscurity.

Every Wednesday at noon the rink is open to people who have received free passes from the Bremerton Parks & Recreation Department. Welch, the competitive skater who works out at the rink on Tuesdays and Sundays, said she appreciates the free time that helps cut down on expenses, “especially since the economy is so bad.”

Micki Giss unlaced her skates along with several friends around noon Wednesday and said she and the group from Bremerton’s senior center come on Mondays and Wednesdays to improve their skills. “We’d be falling on our (bottoms) if we came one time a week,” she said. Giss started skating when she was 62 and won’t reveal her current age.

Of the five women who skated Wednesday morning, Gloria Reinman from Fox Island had the most experience. She’s 72 now and started when she was 27, picking up a gold medal in synchronized team skating at a national competition when she was 50.

At the other end of the experience spectrum was Ginny Munger, 55, a Bremerton woman who skated for the first time a year and a half ago aboard a cruise ship somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. The cruise had an ice show and the skaters gave lessons.

Most of the senior skaters have taken private lessons, said Ruthann Jassek of Bremerton. Sandy Shopes of Bainbridge Island said the skating is great exercise and that she can do more on ice skates than on rollers.

Giss said the learning never stops with ice skating. With that learning comes an occasional visit to the ice by some things other than her feet.

That’s not a pleasant landing for anyone, let alone someone whose age remains her secret. “When you fall it’s a big deal now,” she said.

Giss is prepared. She wears a helmet and wrist guards, but said she’s open to more. “I haven’t found anything for my hips.”